420 Chemical Properties of Animal Fluids. [Dec. 



the frequency of this disorder originating during the cure of 

 fractures of the lower extremities. 



The cloud which appears in the urine during fever, is in fact 

 merely the mucus of the bladder, which, from the increase of 

 the specific gravity of the urine, subsides more slowly, or some- 

 times remains suspended in the fluid. The deposition which 

 urine exhibits in diseases frequently suggests useful indications, 

 and its examination is sometimes of great importance in the 

 practice of medicine. It is necessary, in this inquiry, to distin- 

 guish between two different kinds of matter deposited : the one 

 being composed of the materials which are not held in solution, 

 and are mechanically suspended, and the other consisting of 

 those which are dissolved in warm urine, but which separate by 

 cooling. The former contains, in a state of health, only the 

 mucus of the inner coat of the bladder ; which, while yet warm, 

 may be separated from the latter by filtration. The mucus that 

 remains forms discrete flocculi, which do not collect together, 

 and which, after being dried, do not recover their original 

 transparency and mucosity by maceration in water. This mucus 

 is in great part dissolved by acetic acid or diluted muriatic acid ; 

 but diluted sulphuric acid acts upon it very feebly. It is also 

 soluble by digestion in caustic alkalies. 



In catarrhus vesicae the urine is loaded with an enormous 

 quantity of a mucous matter which is suspended in it. This 

 matter is a true mucus, although, in consequence of the morbid 

 affection of the organ which produces it, its characters are diffe- 

 rent from those of healthy mucus. If it be collected on the 

 filter, in proportion as the water is absorbed, it becomes more 

 and more mucous and viscous ; and, during the desiccation, it 

 becomes transparent and greenish. By maceration in water it 

 recovers its mucous character, undergoes after some time an acid 

 fermentation, and acquires a purulent appearance. In a word, 

 the mucus of the bladder, when diseased, approaches more nearly 

 to that of the nose, and differs much in its properties from the 

 secretion in its natural state. 



There is still another morbid condition of the urinary passages, 

 in which the urine carries along a matter mechanically suspended 

 in it, and which has so close a resemblance to that produced by 

 catarrh, that inattentive practitioners easily confound the one 

 with the other. The urine when filtered leaves a mucous matter 

 on the filter, which however does not become transparent by 

 desiccation, but gives, on the contrary, a white powder appearing 

 only to the touch. This powder consists of phosphate of lime, 

 and the ammoniaco-magnesian phosphate, mixed with the mucus 

 of the bladder. The urine in this disease has lost all its free 

 acid, it does not affect the colour of litmus paper, and I have 

 sometimes even seen it restore the blue colour of litmus when it 



